July 1, 2008

Online journal targets interdisciplinary research

The "Journal of Terrestrial Observation" (http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jto) became the fourth online journal published by Purdue University Press, as the university continues a trend toward making research more accessible to scholars and the public.

"We are a land-grant university, and one of our missions is to conduct research, then provide that research to everyone," said Tom Bacher, director of Purdue Press. "That is what we are doing by publishing online journals. As technology changes, we're finding new ways to distribute information."

Purdue's three other online journals include "First Opinions - Second Reactions: Reviews of Recent Children's and Young Adult Literature;" "CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture;" and "The Journal of Problem-Solving."

"Journal of Terrestrial Observation" editors are Gilbert Rochon, Purdue's associate vice president of IT collaborative research and engagement and director of the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory, and Chris J. Johannsen, a retired professor in the Department of Agronomy who is a former director of the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing. They have compiled articles on earth sciences from scholars at Purdue and around the world.

The journal deals with issues such as remote sensing of soil, vegetation and water resources to understand terrestrial phenomena as well as mitigation of manmade and natural disasters.

The journal will publish twice a year. The second issue will soon be available online in early October. The first issue also will soon be published in a print-on-demand edition.

Writer: Jim Bush, (765) 494-2077, jsbush@purdue.edu

Sources: Tom Bacher, (765) 494-8251, bacher@purdue.edu

Gilbert Rochon, (765) 496-2274, rochone@purdue.edu

Christian Johannsen, (765) 496-2926, johan@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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